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The Kenyon College student who was killed on Friday during street protests in Alexandria, Egypt,
was an idealist, an Arabist and a linguist who was drawn to the Middle East either despite, or
because of, its political unrest, friends said.

Andrew Pochter, 21, a student at the school in Gambier, Ohio, was exuberant when he departed for
Egypt on May 28 for a three-month visit, said a friend, Zoe Lyon, whom he called from the
airport.

The prospect of being in a country riven by political and religious conflict seemed to stir no
fear in him, Lyon said.Like many other young people drawn to the world’s problems, she said, “he
knew there was a possibility of trouble, but never thought that he could get caught up in it.”

“I am not shocked he was at a protest,” she said.

Citing conversations with Pochter’s family, she said it was unclear whether he was taking
pictures or video of the scene in Alexandria.Egyptian security officials said yesterday that
Pochter was stabbed near his heart late Friday during clashes between supporters and opponents of
the country’s president, Mohammed Morsi.

He was pronounced dead at a nearby military hospital shortly afterward.Yesterday, Egyptian
prosecutors ordered the arrest of suspects in the killing but gave no information on their number
or identities. The prosecutor also ordered Pochter’s body to be handed over to American
officials.

Pochter’s family said he had gone to Egypt to teach English to young children, while also
working to improve his Arabic skills.

“He went to Egypt because he cared profoundly about the Middle East, and he planned to live and
work there in the pursuit of peace and understanding,” the family said in their statement. “Andrew
was a wonderful young man looking for new experiences in the world and finding ways to share his
talents while he learned.”

Pochter’s parents live in Chevy Chase, Md., just outside Washington. His father spoke briefly
with a reporter at their home yesterday, but only to say that the family preferred to speak with
reporters on another day.

Pochter’s mother, Elizabeth Driscoll Pochter, is the administrator for policy and programs at
the National Gallery of Art in Washington. He also leaves a sister, Emily.

Lyon said Andrew Pochter took an avid interest in the social and political turmoil in the Middle
East after spending time with a host family in Morocco at the beginning of the Arab Spring in 2010
and 2011, before arriving in Gambier.

Pochter, a religious studies major, would have been a junior at Kenyon this fall. He was a
member of the Middle Eastern Students Association, involved with the college radio station and his
fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi, and raised money for victims of domestic abuse. He was a prominent
member of Kenyon’s Jewish society and was close with the college’s Arabic community and
professors.

Marc Bragin, Kenyon’s Jewish chaplain and the director of Hillel House, a program for Jewish
life on campus, said Pochter had “a passion for learning about other people and other cultures. He
was truly interested in listening to what other people had to say, which for a 21-year-old is not
that common.

“He was one of those rare kids who lived what he believed.”His girlfriend, Kenyon student Clara
Fischman, said, “Andrew was a person who didn’t see the world as separate nations, but a collection
of vibrant cultures.”

College officials communicated with the family yesterday, and Kenyon plans to hold a memorial
service in the fall.

“Andrew’s death is especially troubling, resulting as it did from the political violence that
plagues our world today,” said S. Georgia Nugent, Kenyon’s outgoing president. “... I can only hope
that Andrew’s loss will lead members of the Kenyon community to rededicate themselves to seeking
and fostering peace in whatever ways they can.”